Activists fight for mental health centers

January 27, 2009

Faced with the impending closing of four of Chicago's 12 mental health centers, an advisory board prodded the city's public health commissioner Monday and spoke of pressuring Mayor Richard Daley to create a separate mental health department in the hopes of avoiding further cutbacks.Dr. Terry Mason met with the Community Mental Health Board of Chicago and mental health activists for two hours Monday, explaining that the centers were being closed and what was left of their staffs merged with remaining centers because of a $1.2 million cut in state funding. The changes may happen within 60 days, he said.

"There's some people who believe bad breath is better than no breath at all," Mason said. "But just to have a place open, just to have it open without the right complement of people there doesn't make any sense to me."

Darryl Gumm, chair of the Community Mental Health Board, said mental health services actually need more money during the economic slump. Other activists said mentally ill patients, forced to travel farther for help, would instead stay at home. Still others questioned how the city could care for so many with fewer workers.

"We can find money for the dogs and cats, but not human beings with mental health problems," Gumm said.

Organizers plan to hold a rally starting at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Woodlawn Center, 6337 S. Woodlawn Ave., which is slated to be closed, and ending at City Hall.

Linda Hatcher, 57, has been walking to the Woodlawn Center for nearly 20 years. Hatcher -- who said she's bipolar and takes medication twice a day to stave off suicidal thoughts -- worries about finding her way to another mental health center.